Norwaylady

I forgot to say, we are 3 ship’s in port today. Us, Eclipse🥰 NCL and Carnival. Back to the tour🤓 Safely seated in the last train cart, ready for our scenic train ride🚂 Cart is 50% full. ( we take now chances, face masks is on) Weather has been improving from grey to partly sunny and clearer then this morning😎 Perfect 👍🏻 The train will turn around in White pass summit. We will be travelling from 0 to 880m elevation and back to 0. So, remember the detail of tender operation today? Last afternoon all passengers booked on the scenic train received a message on your stateroom phone. It was shore excursions. They were reminding everyone that due to the tender operation, you need to plan for a 45.minute wait and leave the ship early. The tour has meeting on the pier/train and it is your responsibility to be there in time. Well, we left the station 13.05. AND guess what? There was a group of passengers running towards the train as we slowly moved away, screaming: stop the train🤪🤪🤪 They did not stop the train🚂🚂🚂 Back on track🚂🚂🚂 It’s a beautiful train ride and the weather was perfect🤩🤩🤩 The guide was fun and informative during the ride. Did I tell you about the view? Yes, it’s scenic! (Maybe not in heavy fog…) Bring you camera AND sit in the last cart. Then you have great view for photos on the outdoor patio📸 It’s totally unobstructed🤩🤩🤩 Tour is 2.45h round trip. We were back on the starting point/pier at 16.05. We are “finished” toured today. So back to the ship it is🚢⚓️❤️ Yay, the pleasure of tender operation AND a fully loaded train🤣🤪😝 Well, it gives me time to post this😅🤓

She will receive 2 tablerunner projects and some patterns from Skagway✔️ She will be occupied for some hours 😂🥰 I visited the Cloth shop when we visited Granville Island✔️🙃

Stopped by✔️ Shopped✔️

Skagway, the city of gold diggers and ladies😄 This is a perfect example of what we imagine for a “gold digger” city. Houses, streets and buildings🤩 Tender process went smooth. We went straight down to tender deck around 8.40 and docked 09.00 We took a walk up and down the “Main Street” stopped by the museum houses. It’s a golden city🤩 So all gold and diamond shops was lined up. (You know, diamonds are a girls best friend💍💎💎) We had one store we needed to stop by, the quilt store. ( you see, my mother in-law is hooked on quilt😅) So I needed to find her a new project🤓 They have lots of beautiful patterns and kits in Skagway. ✂️🪡🧵 At 11.00 Mr Norwaylady wanted to have a beer 🍺 (you know from earlier, Norwaylady is in deep trouble on this holiday🙈) Mr had done his homework and knew it was 2 brewery’s in town🍺🍺 So we went to Klondike Handcraft Beer. They had a beautiful tasting paddle🤩 Nice presentation and cute glassware👍🏻 Mr was very happy and the beer was excellent for his tastebuds🍺 Cheers 🍻 Norwaylady decided to try the raspberry seltzer, in a small glass. The seltzer was really good, dry and fresh. Perfect for non-beer drinkers🍹 Time to move the pub crawl onward…… Next stop Skagway Brewing Co🙌🏻 (I know, not suitable for kid’s😜) A new tasting paddle was delivered🍻 4 new beers to taste and evaluate on Untappd🧐🤪 Drumroll🥁🥁🥁🥁 winner beer is from Klondike. Now it’s time to bring a happy Mr to the 🚂 and our tour of today🤩 (Hopefully the pub crawl is finished for our holiday😜)

Skagway Rise & Shine🤩 We are booked on the scenic train 12.45. Due tue the mudslide earlier in Skagway, we are docked. But we must tender into the city. The pier is closed for people. So this makes the process a bit more complicated on this port. We have priority tender from captain’s club. So we are starting the day at Tuscan for breakfast and then we will tender into town for a walk before we take the train.

Tonight’s plan is show+dinner. It’s a production show, Broadway Cabaret. It will be a good evening after a day out👍🏻 Wow, the vocal cast of the entertainment/dance/vocal group are strong. They really put on a show tonight. Great evening and good choice of songs. We were handed a beeper for dinner. It’s really not a problem for us. Then we have time for a pre-dinner cocktail and we are not bothered at all. Dinner tonight was good service. Starters: Trout, salmon, summer roll and chilled pea soup Main: veal and ravioli Dessert: crème brûlée and apple tart tatin The chilled pea soup was special, Mr Norwaylady said: hmmm, is it a lobster based soup blended by sweet peas? Really special….😝 The rest of the starters was 😋 Main course was excellent😌 Dessert was not bad, not a winner🙃 The apple tart is good, but skip that caramel sauce on everything😝 Mr Norwaylady had crème brûlée, it’s his ultimate go-to dessert😋😋😋 unfortunately this crème brûlée had been a bit to much 🔥🔥🔥🔥 so it was beyond caramelised, it was burned on top. So the pudding was good, but the glacé was just to lift off😅 After dinner we returned to our home-away-from-home. We had a great stop in Juneau🥰 Time to charge the battery for new adventure in Skagway😌

Back to the shore excursion😎 Tour left from the pier 12.30. Meeting time was 12.15. We were 12 people. The tour was Bike & Brew🍺 (so you get the point, Mr Norwaylady is a happy camper) The tour started by a 15.min drive to the starting point of our 🚴 tour. We were biking towards Mendenhall glacier visitor centre and around the water. The trip went on forest trail and on the road. Guide was 👍🏻 he heard us talking in Norwegian and he had to ask if we were from Norway. It turns out, our guide has been living in Bergen for 3 years🤩 So he could speak Norwegian😁 The weather really went out and out for us. During our tour it was blue sky, sunny and good temperature. So it was a beautiful day😎 The view to the Mendenhall glacier and Nuggets falls was beautiful from around the water. Last stop and pick up was the glacier visitor centre. We cycled 13km on the tour. The bikes were quality bikes. After returning the bikes, we were driving back to downtown Juneau. It was time for a beer or two🍺🍺🍺🍺 Now the fun part begins for Mr Norwaylady😝 It was a beer tasting of 4 different beers from Alaskan. (That’s 8 1/4pints for Mr Norwaylady🤪😝) He enjoyed the beer and was happy for my selection of tour🤩🥳😍 The favourite was Alaskan Amber🍺 After finishing up the beer, it was time to walk back to the ship🙃 We were back onboard around 17.10. Had a little stop at Al Bacio to pick up some coffee and a pice of pound cake to Mr🍺😂😝 All-in-all a great day in Juneau.

We left the ship around 10.00. It was a little drizzle when we left. But nothing bad. We are in town together by Viking and HAL. ( NCL arrived at some point during our tour) We took a grand walk of the city. (And had a planned shopping stop at the Quilt store) The weather cleared up during our walk. So we walked to the end of the pier on both side. Visited the whale 🐳 monument, walked thru the shopping streets, passing ALL the jewellery shop… (it felt like a Caribbean port of call😂😂😂) walked up to the Russian church and back to the pier for our tour.

Rise & Shine Juneau calling⚓️ So we are heading out to town for a walk before our Bike & Brew tour. It was partly clouded and some sun when we docked this morning. But, you know…. The Alaska weather is just like the Norwegian weather. It changed to a shower drizzle and cloudy. As the normal procedure of the morning, we had ordered breakfast to the room and Norwaylady is picking up coffee at Al Bacio. (Don’t say we don’t have a routine😆) It’s always fun to open the napkins and see what type of cutlery 🍴 we receive. They must use the leftover cutlery, to make sure someone doesn’t take home a souvenir😂😂 We have everything from butter knife, fruit knives to regular dinner knives. And worm out knives that you can’t cut anything🤣🤣

Tonight we decided that Sky Lounge was the best place for a pre-show cocktail 🍸 Beautiful view and weather🤩 What more to ask for? Tonight’s show was The Cover Girls. Great song’s and humour. The celebrity orchestra was backing. Easy entertainment. Dinner was at Made’s tables. Great service. All food was excellent. We had for starters: crab martini, Quail and the fennel citrus salad. Main course: duck and tuna Dessert: Tiramisu and ice cream. Coffee and sambuca. Tomorrow it’s Juneau. We have a bike & brew tour booked.

After a defrost session in the jacuzzi, we picked up some lunch at Spa café. The view from the jacuzzi was perfect. As we were leaving the fjord, HAL was sailing in. We had a relaxing afternoon, staying in our cabin, watching the view outside and just listening to the ocean. We took a little trip down to al bacio around 16.00. It was seating available by the window. So we decided to have coffee and a fruit tart on site. The sky cleared up to blue sky and partly clouds. So beautiful outside, but not Caribbean temperature😝 Clothing today: So close to glaciers, you have a micro climate. So it can be very different from further away and it can change quickly. Today was a excellent example of this. We had everything except for snow. To be able to stay outside for a longer time in the wind on transit to/from the glaciers, you need wind proof clothing and you need to be warm. Since it changes quickly from sun to rain, it’s best to have waterproof and wind proof clothing. We had: 1.base layer thin wool, pants+sweater 2.daily medium wool sweater+ hiking pants, partly water/wind proof. 3.down west 4.wind/waterproof jacket 5.buff for nech/ gloves/ hat

So today is Hubbard Glacier day🤩😎🥳 o’boi are we looking forward. Remember, we come from a land of many glaciers🇳🇴 And we have a large glacier pretty close to our family cabin up north….🧊🧊🧊 Svartisen Glacier. And at Svalbard/Spitsbergen we have several to visit by boat and we love to kayak in front of them🧊🧊🧊 We started the day easy, breakfast delivered to our room and enjoyed the view from our balcony. Around 09.00 we got dressed for 🥶🥶🥶🌤🌦❄️💦☔️ 4-seasons. It was drizzling and a bit foggy. We went up to deck 15 front. It was not really crowded and you could see the glaciers looking forward. We were working our way to go closer to the glaciers. The sky cleared up and it was chilly, but dry and a small stripe of sun😎 Milos came on the speaker and told us the “plan” of todays conditions. We were going closer and in a short time, the tender for booked passengers on the small vessel would be picked up. We would during this process slow down and turn the ship a bit to the side, to ease the wind for the tender operation. After they were dropped off, we would speed up again and go as close as possible. When we were as close as possible, the ship would turn 360 for viewing. Milos also made it clear that you needed to dress up, it’s cool and windy outside. AND if your already on the helipad🤩, GET OFf😂😂😂 you will turn 🥶🥶🥶 long before we have arrived🤣🤣🤣 We cruised closer and we could see seals 🦭 on the ice flakes. They were taking a nap. We passed a colony of sea lions. They were enjoying life. The weather was good and clear when we arrived at the glaciers. We were very close to the glaciers. You could hear the ice crack and see it falling into the ocean. We were very close and it was a magical view. When we arrived the foggy weather was returning from the back of the ship going front, to the glacier. It stated to ☔️. The majority run inside. We had dressed for all events, so we stayed. It’s something magical to see and hear how the ice is “singing” The captain did a 360 spin and we started to slowly sail away from the glaciers. We went down to change into our swimsuits. The rest of the ship was in the buffet😊 So it was perfect to enjoy the hut tub in the solarium alone. Sailing out of the fjord filled of 🧊🧊🧊 ice.

The WiFi is extremely slow and our stateroom is partly a “dead” spot. So you must stay just inside the entrance door to be able to download or upload….in our stateroom🤪 So a bit unpractical🥸

After a jacuzzi session, it was time for show+dinner. We attended the 19.00 show. It was the celebrity orchestra & Tommy Proulx. He is a very talented saxophone player. So if you are into saxophone, he’s the good guy🎶🎶🎶 We had a great time and really enjoyed the show. After the show we walked to Blu for dinner. We were handed a beeper. When we arrived and got the beeper, one of the servers went down. She did a flying duck fall❤️ We really hope she’s okay😘 it didn’t look good at all❤️ We went to ensemble lounge for a pre dinner drink. It was very crowded, so by the time we got our drinks, the beeper went off. We walked back and was seated. Somalier service was excellent. The service tonight felt very rushed from our main server. We had just left the cutlery on the plate before it was taken AND the next plate was delivered in the same operation. Very stressful for me, I like to have the peace and calm when eating. Assistant waitress was great and extremely more “ connected” to our needs and wishes for speed at dinner service. Mr Norwaylady was hungry after running town+ kayak tour. ( no lunch today, unless you count the Bloody Mary in the jacuzzi) We ordered for stater: Brie, (sorry, forgot the picture) grilled asparagus, watercress salad and chilled lobster salad Main course: short ribs Dessert: cherry jubilee and lava cake. Coffee & Samboca. Starters and mains was good. Today both of the desserts are “winner” desserts we love. But Mr Norwaylady was a bit 😕 the lava cake was cold…. So it was not a hot sizzling lava😜 banana was tasty but a bit let down… The night before, we had dinner at Made tables. It was very good and perfectly timed. Tonight he stopped by to say hello, even if we were not by his tables. Extremely nice and it’s a pleasure for us. I will ask to be seated at his tables for later. Tonight’s zone was to fast for my taste. Tomorrow we are cruising Hubbard Glacier. Cruise compass for Hubbard glacier is posted.

Map of kayak tour

At 13.00 we left on our kayak tour. We were picked up on the pier by a boat. It took us to Siginaka island. Here we geared up and off in tandem kayaks we paddled. It was grey, low skyline and drizzle in the morning. When we pushed out on the water, it all cleared up and the sun came out😎 Good timing🤩 We paddled 4km around the islands.( see the map from my Suunto:) It was a great time on the ocean. We had a 🦭 seal close to our kayak after 10.mins out on the tour. It was checking us out🤓 We saw 5 bold eagles 🦅 in the trees during our round and a eagle nest. After 3/4 of our kayak adventure we were so lucky to have a larger group of harbour whale’s/ harbour porpoise surrounding us. It was all you could ask for and more🤩🐳🐳🐳🐳 Unfortunately I hadn’t packed the good camera for the tour, only the iPhone. (But it’s cheaper to drown the phone;) We had hot chocolate and biscuits when we returned to the kayak storage. Then we returned by boat back to ship. We had a great day I Sitka and we managed to see a lot. After returning to the ship, we went straight to the jacuzzi on pool deck.

So, we are not sleeping or just hanging around on the ship before our kayak tour…. We jumped on the first possible bus when we docked in Sitka. It’s important to maximise our stay😎 So into Sitka downtown it went. We wanted to take the grand city centre walk and to the totems in the National park. We took the grand walk. The salmon is hatching, so the river was filled. We had 1.45h in downtown before we took the shuttle back to meet for our tour of the day.

Cruise planner for Sitka attached. Today we had breakfast in the room, enjoying the view from the balcony. Our kayak tour has meeting time on the pier 13.00.

Evening chick After solving our excursion problem, it was time to get ready for the evening. Our laundry was returned when we were dressing up. We delivered a full bag when we arrived the ship🤪 it was nicely folded and wrinkle free. Fancy pants on and off we went🤩 Our normal routine is show at 19.00 and a pre drink in the martini bar before the show. After the show we go to dinner or attend something more before dinner. So last night was back to normal🙃 The Martin bar was packed when we walked down, they had just opened the doors to early dinner. So in a few minutes it was spacious and easy to be seated. We had a cocktail and enjoyed the time we were seated. 15.mins before the show started, we walked to the theatre, they were serving mimosas, champagne and white wine to everyone. We walked to our “regular” seat’s. The theatre was around 70% full when the show started. Captain, staff captain, hr manager and hotel director arrived on the stage to welcome everyone onboard and happy cruising. Tonight’s performance was Topper. A production show. We have seen it before, but it’s fun. It’s wonderland meeting 202x. Good performance from singers, dancers and aerialists. There are 2 very strong vocalists onboard, we had them before. After the show we decided that we wanted to go to dinner directly. We walked to Blu and it was full, the majority was finishing up desserts. So we needed to wait 5.minutes so they could clear and prepare a table. 10.minutes after we were seated 70% of Blu had left. Tonight’s dinner was good, lots of options we enjoy. We had the tuna tataki and tomato salad for starters. For main course we ordered gnocchi and the pheasant breast. Dessert, ice cream and the chilled strawberry soup. Coffee and sambuca. The tuna was perfect, really good. Tomato salad as it should be😌 The gnocchi was 😋😋 The pheasant breast was a bit dry….. So Mr Norwaylady politely asked if he could get the lamb instead. Wish, granted😅 (we don’t often send plates in return, it’s only if it’s necessary) The lamb was very tender and tasted very good. Mr Norwaylady was a happy camper😋😋😋 The desserts was good. Mr Norwaylady loves the cold strawberry soup. It’s one of he’s favourite desserts onboard. ( and off course he loves the chilled strawberry soup they serve as a starter now and then😝) Norwaylady has a soft spot for ice cream🍦🍨🍦 So tonight it was after eight ice cream on the menu😍 one of the favourites. The ice cream was perfect. No ice inside and well balanced minty flavour. (If it’s very busy for ice cream onboard and they need to make a lot more, it’s to quickly freezing and you get lots of ice inside) Norwaylady is not the biggest fan of sugary, very sweet things. So a lot of the beautiful cakes and cookies they have onboard are just to sweet for my taste. But ice cream/sorbet is my soft spot😋 And I’m allergic to pineapple🍍🍍🍍 Yes it taste’s lovely, I just can’t eat it😵😵‍💫🤒🚨🚨🚨 Now your thinking, pineapple? 🤔 Is that a problem? YES. It’s often used as toppings of cake or juice on the buns, tarts, Pina Colada’s, juice in cocktails 🍹, mixed fruit platter, mixed juices etc. So I always read the fine print🤓 AND I’m going to Hawaii😅😂🤣 back to the evening🥳 After dinner we were ready for bed. ( you know understand why I said we are better on X then other lines…. We are young’ish, but old souls😌)

First day at sea, and first day to relax all day since leaving home😎 Good thing, fog lifted to a decent level and the fog horn was silenced🎵The sun eventually came out for a visit⛅️ Temperature is staring to be good Norwegian standard🇳🇴 So we feel very at home outside😅😁 We started the day 10.00 by listening to Milos, the beyond the podium speaker onboard. The subject was Wildlife of Alaska and the pacific north. He was on fire and we had a great 60.minute session. Between the lecture and the next plan, it was time for a little stretch on the bed, just reading and relaxing. It’s evening chick tonight. Today it was captain’s club party at 12.30. We decided to attend. It was okay. Top cruiser is a lady, 8000+ points. There are several zenith’s onboard. The captain’s club hostess is a Japanese woman, she’s brand new as captain’s club hostess. They served drink and snacks during the meeting. After the gathering, we decided that we need some lunch. So we picked up some fruit in the buffet and took it outside to watch the ocean and enjoy the sun. Mr Norwaylady wanted to take a trip to the Persian garden. When we returned to our stateroom, we had a message on the phone. It was shore excursions….. Our kayak tour tomorrow was cancelled and they had some options or we would be refunded. But we needed to stop by their office between 16.00-20.00 tonight. So we took a walk to the Persian Garden. Lovely weather outside( but colder), comfy and warm inside on the heated chair🥰 Absolutely perfect way to relax. Shore excursions challenge🤪 Norwaylady went down 16.00 to tackle the problem. Mr Norwaylady on the other hand, stayed relaxed on the hot chair in the Persian Garden🥰 The line was long and it took 30.mins before it was my turn. They had another kayak tour tomorrow, it has a different itinerary and was more expensive. The tour company had cancelled our tour, due to lack of staff. Shore excursions was giving us 25% off all available tours for tomorrow. So we decided to book the other kayak tour and ended up paying 14$ extra after 25% off. We are happy and problem solved🤓

So, the royal wake-up! The Fog Horn😴 It was tick fog early in the morning. But luckily it has lifted. I went down to al bacio to get some coffee around 06.50 and the line was long, but it moved fast. So no worries☕️ We went to breakfast at 8.00. We had decided for Blu or captains club breakfast in Tuscan. Since they are next to each other. Blu was full and had a line, so we decided for Tuscan. They had made a small buffet. Serving smoked salmon,3x cheese, salami, mortadella, fruits and bread. And choices of cold and hot beverages. We had a nice table to enjoy the view. We really like the location of Tuscan due to the view.